June 30th

An antique sapphire and diamond pin brought in $150. Brass pineapple
candleholders brought in $18. A childâ€™s Ethiopian dress brought in
$40. A 1927 edition of Winnie the
Pooh brought in $35. A Paragon
bone china cup and saucer from the 1940s brought in $20. Some 1854
stamps from India brought in
$60.

All of these
items were donated by CPT supporters over the last year to the CPT Boutiqueâ€”one
less material thing in their lives meant a little more money to support CPTâ€™s
work in the Middle East and the Americas.

June 29th

Pray for the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake. The Canadian Government has imposed a Band of Council without the communityâ€™s consent. This Band of Council is making deals with corporations to exploit the natural resources that are in the traditional territory of the community.

At 11:20 p.m. on 26 June 2011, an unknown man shot lawyer
Karwan Kamal in his foot, breaking two bones, as Kamal was paying for parking.

Kamal told CPTers, "When I was paying the money, I
suddenly felt pain in my leg. I
fell and saw a man with traditional Kurdish clothes aiming at my head with a
handgun. I jumped over a low wall
to protect myself." He said
the armed man shot five bullets and left in a private car close by.

June 28th

On 25 June 2011, eleven Israeli
settlers armed with stones and knives attacked Shaadi Muhamari and his brother
Kamal Muhamari as they grazed their sheep in Meshaha Valley, next to the
Palestinian village of At-Tuwani. The
attack occurred around 10:00 a.m.

According to Shaadi Muhamari, the
settlers came down from the Israeli outpost of Havat Ma'on. Some of the settlers were masked as they
ran toward the shepherds throwing stones, yelling blasphemies against Islam,
and saying that internationals were now not present to protect them. A settler attacked Shaadi Muhamriâ€™s donkey
with a knife, and when he attempted to stop the attacker and protect his
donkey, settlers hit him with stones in the back and torso. The attack left Shaadi Muhamari with
bruises and welts on his back.

June 27th

In the beginning of his Gospel, Mark lays the foundation of
Jesus' mission to show the disciples and us a new way to salvation. At that time, the Temple served as the
center of Jewish life, the place where the economic transactions and social and
religious rituals were supposed to sustain the community. However, often these transactions and
rituals benefited only those in power and oppressed the poor. When Jesus arrives on the scene from a
small town in Palestine he doesn't go to the Temple. Instead, he meets up with John the Baptist in the wilderness.
Here is where he starts his
mission.

June 24th

On 8 June 2011, fire burned twenty to thirty dunums (4 dunums equal about 1
acre) of a fifty dunum plot of land owned by five different Palestinian families, who grew fruit trees and other garden
produce on it. One of the property owners reported to CPTers Paulette
Schroeder, Jessie Smith, Laurens van Esch, and Esther Mae Hinshaw that the fire
was set by settlers who live in a Kiryat Arba settlement outpost adjacent to
the burned trees and field. When the CPTers arrived on the scene, an
Israeli fire truck was spraying water on the surrounding land. The
property owner reported that a Palestinian fire truck had put out the
fire. One of the owners, who has a shop near the CPT apartment, had
alerted the CPTers.

June 23rd

Post-Protest situationMr. K told CPTers that since the crackdown on demonstrations in
Suleimaniya, Kurdish security forces had been abducting and beating protesters
and journalists. He said the
biggest problem now is not the presence of a greater number of security forces,
but that people are feeling scared, intimidated, discouraged, and helpless. When the young people see the forces in
the square and market, he said, they understand what the Kurdish people
experienced under Saddam Hussein.

June 22nd

Pray for the Palestinian farmers of Beit Ummar. Encroachment of Israeli settlements onto their land, and incidents of harassment such as the recent destruction of 21 grape vines, make it increasingly difficult for them to tend their orchards and vineyards.

June 21st

Maybe you shouldn't join the Christian Peacemaker Team delegation
to northeast AntioquĂ­a. Maybe you
are like those activists I met during my speaking tour in Canada, whom I admire
because they are actively in solidarity with Colombians resisting oppression
and violence without ever even having met any of them. If you are such a person, there is
probably no good reason for you to spend money and contribute to global warming
by taking a flight to Colombia to join a delegation. Your energy and commitment are needed to do work in your home
countries on behalf of victims of violence and neo-colonialism in Colombia.

Speaking for myself, I need to be here in order not to feel
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem. I know the statistics, and understand the root of the
problem: the violent dispossession and displacement of peoples from their
traditional territory in order to pave the way for the looting of resources by lumber,
oil, agro-industrial, bio-fuel and other corporate interests. But in my case, the cerebral understanding
of the problem only depresses me, and I end up feeling overwhelmed and
powerless. For me, it is my
personal relationships with the victims and witnessing their tireless and
courageous struggle for justice in the face of incredible odds and that keep me
going.

June 20th

On 17 May 2011, vandals, whom local Palestinians assumed to be settlers from
the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, destroyed the roof on an agricultural home
belonging to the family of Mohammed Saleh Abu Swai. In the summer, Palestinian farmers often sleep in stone houses
out in their fields. Abu Swai had
come out to his olive orchard two days earlier to fertilize his trees and put
the roof on the house. When he
returned, he saw that the planks he had laid across his house were broken and
up-ended.